Actions that Could Increase Work Participation for Adults with Disabilities

What Participants Said:

From the policy options identified through two surveys and discussions at a 1-day forum, participants prioritized the following actions for improving work outcomes at three levels: individual, employer, and federal.

Individual: Participants articulated a key underlying principle for increasing work participation—improve incentives for individuals with disabilities to work while strengthening necessary services and supports. Participants generally agreed that a more coordinated system of programs and benefits is needed to encourage individuals to work and remove the structural barriers that can jeopardize the services and supports they depend on. They also noted that an increased emphasis on benefits counselors could be useful in helping individuals coordinate the services they receive. However, participants cautioned that any new approaches should be structured to avoid unintended consequences, such as adversely affecting those who cannot work or have yet to enter the workforce.

Employer: Participants focused on two proposed actions to further engage and encourage employers in helping individuals with disabilities keep their jobs or return to work. The first involved creating a well-structured information campaign to educate employers about the benefits of keeping employees with disabilities at work or helping them return to work. This campaign would include information about the financial benefits of retaining these employees, as well as narratives from companies who have been successful in doing so. Participants emphasized the importance of disseminating information through a variety of media outlets and involving the disability and business communities in the process of developing the campaign. The second action involved enhancing incentives for employers to keep or return individuals to work by increasing their responsibility for some of the long-term costs of disability. This could be done either by requiring employers to directly finance extended disability benefits for their employees or by adjusting employers’ payroll taxes based on their success at keeping employees in the workforce. Ideally, both actions would motivate employers to increase their use of services and practices that proactively address potentially disabling conditions and reintroduce individuals to the workplace.

Federal: To address the actions proposed above, or other broad policy options, participants agreed that a federal coordinating entity is needed to focus and align efforts across numerous federal agencies and programs that play a role in supporting individuals with disabilities. They noted that to be effective, interagency efforts would need strong support from the White House; and to ensure legitimacy, a coordinating entity would need representation from the disability community. Participants also suggested that the federal government could do more to serve as a model employer of individuals with disabilities and that more research is needed on hiring practices and retention levels of individuals with disabilities within the federal workforce.

(more on this article)

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Starting August 5, all DAC offices are to close the doors at 12pm on Thursdays for afternoon staff meetings.

Please note that this will be a regular closing and meeting time from Aug. 5th forward.

The Campaign for Disability Employment

About the Campaign for Disability Employment

The Campaign for Disability Employment is a collaborative effort between several disability and business organizations that seek to promote positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities by encouraging employers and others to recognize the value and talent they bring to the workplace, as well as the dividend to be realized by fully including people with disabilities at work. People with disabilities can and do make important contributions to America’s businesses every day. By implementing good workplace practices, like maintaining a flexible and inclusive work environment, businesses can capitalize on the talents of qualified people with disabilities, benefitting everyone.

The Campaign is a collaborative effort between several organizations that are working to raise awareness and change attitudes about disability and employment. These partners include :

• American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD);
• National Business and Disability Council (NBDC);
• National Council of La Raza (NCLR);
• National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC);
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM);
• Special Olympics (SO); and
• U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN).

The Campaign is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP); receives technical assistance from the Job Accommodation Network (JAN); and is supported by the Disability Policy Research Center at West Virginia University.


The What Can You Do? Effort

Through its national public education effort, What Can YOU Do?, the Campaign for Disability Employment reinforces that people with disabilities want to work and that their talents and abilities positively impact businesses both financially and organizationally. It’s easy to join the What Can YOU Do? effort and support the Campaign by exploring the What Can YOU Do? Web site. The Web site offers a range of education and outreach tools, all designed to engage employers, people with disabilities, family and educators, and the general public. These include on-line forums which offer users the opportunity to express their commitment to disability employment efforts and share what they “can do”; grassroots tools and tangible ideas for supporting the Campaign’s goals; links to trusted resources that provide disability employment related information; and video public service announcements (PSAs). These creative video spots that challenge assumptions about people with disabilities and employment include the Campaign’s flagship “I Can” PSA, intended for nationwide television broadcast, and “Meet Sue”, the winner of the What Can YOU Do? Video Contest.

Please join the Campaign for Disability Employment in its mission to promote positive employment outcomes for people with disabilities by using the What Can YOU Do? Web site to access resources to assist in recruiting, retaining and advancing skilled, qualified employees and by sharing the important message that, “At work, it’s what people can do that matters.”

Jobless Disabled Topping 50% Shows Rights Lag

This week is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, one of the country’s landmark civil rights measures and the signature domestic achievement of PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush.

The ADA mandates equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities in employment, access to public facilities, transportation and telecommunications.

Although problems persist, particularly in employment, it has transformed America, improved the lives of the 50 millionpeople with disabilities (half of them severely disabled) and served as a model for much of the rest of the world.

“In very fundamental ways, it has changed the basic societal perception and expectations of the role of people with disabilities in America, and of the country’s obligation to make accommodations to enable the fullest practicable participation of this segment of the population,” says Robert Burgdorf Jr., a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia who wrote the first draft of the measure.

The gains have been most visible in accessibility, with curb cuts, transportation and access to public facilities. “The ADA has changed the way Americans get around and relate to their communities,” says Andy Imparato, the president of the American Association of People with Disabilities.

Citing the landmark 1954 civil rights school desegregation case, Imparato says, “The ADA is our Brown v. Board of Education.” And like Brown, it’s an evolving process that takes years, decades.

UN Convention

A look around the globe and the ADA’s impact is evident; it was a catalyst for the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, an international accord that requires parties to promote equal rights for and full employment of the disabled.

“The U.S. still leads the world in safeguarding the rights of its citizens with disabilities,” says Tanya Gallagher, head of the Disability Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

The Japanese are developing their own ADA-type law now, and China proudly hosted the Special Olympics for the developmentally disabled in 2008; developing countries are using the ADA as a model to start to deal with the issue.

There remain daunting challenges in health care, technology and especially jobs. The jobless rate for disabled people in the U.S. is officially 14.3 percent, or almost double that of able- bodied workers; since this figure only counts those looking for jobs, the real unemployment rate for the disabled, experts say, probably exceeds 50 percent.

Company Hiring

There are companies that have adopted a more aggressive policy for hiring employees with disabilities. Professor Peter Blanck, chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, recently surveyed 30,000 disabled employees at 14 companies. He found that in firms labeled by employees as “disability friendly” -- providing more accommodations, flexibility and less autocracy -- disparities in wages, retention and workplace issues disappeared.

In an interview, Blanck cited several examples of disability-friendly companies: Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp., Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears Roebuck & Co. and Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. among them.

The courts, especially conservative judges, and all the way to the Supreme Court, handed down a series of anti-ADA decisions limiting these civil rights. Often, discrimination claims then were summarily dismissed.

ADA Amendments

However, the last Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which overturned a number of these unfortunate court decisions, and has facilitated the legal process for people with disabilities.

The political problems haven’t disappeared. A few months ago, Rand Paul, the Republican candidate for senator in Kentucky, dismissed government efforts. “I think if you have a two-story office, and you hire someone who’s handicapped, it might be reasonable to let him have an office on the first floor rather than the government saying you have to have a $100,000 elevator,” he said.

Much of the disabilities community considers the term handicapped pejorative; it originated in Elizabethan England, when people with disabilities were forced to beg on the street and were given a cap for handouts. Contrary to Paul’s assertions, accessibly costs for businesses and public facilities have been comparatively low.

State Cuts

With pervasive fiscal travails, many states are cutting back on Medicaid, often disproportionately hitting those with disabilities. Arizona this year is cutting mental health services by more than one-third.

And despite the controversial court decisions, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan wasn’t asked one question about the ADA during her confirmation hearings and there was only a single fleeting reference to disabilities. By contrast, four senators grilled her on abortion, which was mentioned 38 times in the hearings.

Still the progress, in politics, business and social mindsets, is impressive. The health-care bill passed this year banned insurance companies from denying coverage because of preexisting medical conditions, a major triumph for those with disabilities.

Vehicle Production Group LLC, with a principal investment from the Washington-based private-equity fund Perseus LLC, is producing the first passenger car specifically designed for people with disabilities, with a ramp and enough space for wheelchairs and carts to easily maneuver. The $40,000 vehicle will be available next year.

Telecommunications

Last week, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, shepherded through the panel a measure that updates the telecommunications portion of the ADA, reflecting changes in technology. It requires smart phones to be more accessible to the disabled and online videos to include captioning.

Like the great struggles over civil rights and race, the most determinative issue is attitudinal. “Without the ADA, ignorance about the abilities and potential of persons with disabilities would be far more pervasive,” Professor Gallagher says.

The progress since Bush signed the measure in the summer of 1990 has been notable. Moreover, auguring well for the future, there’s a generational divide, with younger people far more comfortable and accepting of those with disabilities.

Yet the most remarkable change has been for those most affected.

“The ADA has helped disabled people think about their status as a measure of civil rights and equality, not simply as a medical or social welfare policy,” Imparato says. “The ADA has given us the right to talk about our disabilities and not be ashamed.”

(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net

ADA brings little progress in the workplace

Reporting at MSNBC, Eve Tahmincioglu says Americans with disabilities still face overwhelming barriers to employment two decades after the enactment of the ADA. A recent Harris Survey of working-aged people with disabilities found that only 21 percent were employed either full or part-time, compared with 59 percent of people without disabilities.

The study, commissioned by the National Organization on Disability and theKessler Foundation, said 73 percent of those without jobs cited their disability as the reason they were unemployed. The survey also found that people with disabilities are twice as likely as people without disabilities to have annual household incomes of $15,000 or less.

“There have been great improvements because of the ADA, but discrimination in the workplace is still at an unacceptable level,” said Rodger DeRose, CEO of the Kessler Foundation.

… Without job opportunities, DeRose said, all the accessibility advances for disabled folks — such as ramps and parking spots — that resulted thanks to the Act, won’t truly help the disabled integrate fully into society, both socially and economically.

(With video from the NBC Today Show, featuring NOD board member Bonnie St. John and Alana Wallace, actor in the “Think Beyond the Label” public service campaign.)

Survey: ADA has not improved quality of life

From USA Today:

A survey commissioned by the Kessler Foundation/National Organization on Disabilities finds that the ADA has not made meaningful progress in improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.

The survey shows that more must be done to help people with disabilities get ahead, said Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability.

“While education has improved considerably, joblessness has not. We as a nation must figure this out,” she said.

Among the survey’s key findings:

• People with disabilities still lag in key areas such as employment, access to health care and social interactions;

• 21% of disabled working-age Americans had a job in the past year, versus 59% for those without disabilities;

• 19% of people with disabilities said they did not get the medical care they needed in the past year, with lack of insurance coverage cited as the top reason;

• 48% of people with disabilities eat out at a restaurant twice a month, compared to 75% of those without disabilities; and

• 34% of disabled people say inadequate transportation is a problem, compared to 16% of those without disabilities, a gap that has widened 5 percentage points since 1986.

Related post here.

EEOC: Less than 1 percent of federal workers have disabilities

A report released this week by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that people with targeted disabilities still comprise less than one percent (0.88 percent) of the total federal work force. Targeted disabilities include deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation, mental illness, and distortion of the limb and/or spine.

According to the report, the percentage of federal employees with targeted disabilities held steady in fiscal 2009 for the first time since 1995, halting a 13-year decline.

“As the largest employer in the nation, the federal government should lead the way in creating a diverse and just workplace,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “Government employers need to continue to recruit and promote employees who represent the tapestry of America. They must also improve the efficiency of the complaint process so that justice delayed is not justice denied. We look forward to assisting the federal government to become an exemplary employer.”

An executive order signed by the president this week ordered federal agencies to hire 100,000 more employees with disabilities over the next five years, and mandated that hiring managers and human resource staff members be trained on how to employ people with disabilities.